Serving Christ daily can bring unexpected laughs and hard challenges

    I hope that you have enjoyed a great season of Lent and Easter Sunday. Today after a day off for Easter and a regular day off, it was back to work, business as usual today. So on my way to go make a hospital visit to a patient at Watauga Medical Center, when I got out of my car I heard an odd sound. Something squeaking. So I looked around and there was a truck parked in the parking lot with a camper shell on the back of it, with the side panels lifted up and inside of that camper shell making those squeaking noises, turned into oinks. Yes, that's right, oinks. It was a little pig, about 100 pounds that came over to the side of the truck to give me a great big hello. I have seen a lot of pigs. I have traveled to see patients in lots of different hospitals, but this was the first pig I have ever seen that loved it's owner enough to come and make a visit to the hospital. So I snapped a shot with my cell phone, and I hope the picture comes through. After visiting with the pig, taking her picture, talking pig talk to her, I went on about my work, which was to go make a visit to a patient. It was a laugh out loud scene. Good enough to share, so I am sharing the picture with you on todays blog. It made me laugh out loud and I hope it does the same for you.
     This week, we are getting ready for our next biggest event after Easter, the bi-annual ham and chicken supper put on by our United Methodist Men. We set up the tables for the event tonight. We expect a huge crowd on Friday night. As the community comes in to eat with us, say a prayer for us to talk to as many people as we can for the cause of Christ, and give them some real food, the Bread of Life. We want to make sure that we use every opportunity to say a word for the good of the cause of Christ that we can. Why is it that it seems so much harder to talk to your immediate family about the life changing power of Christ than even to a stranger? If you are in a place to talk to your family member about spiritual things, our prayer for you is that God will give you the courage to give a bold witness, that we are an Easter people. We serve a risen Lord who does still have the power to change lives, and does change lives forever. If we did not have that hope, where would we be? Life continues to bring so many opportunities to speak for Christ on a daily basis, I want to encourage you to not avoid the hard talks with the people closest to you, God will give you the words to say, and let you know when the time is the right time. God is with us, not against us, and for someone living far from Christ, that is a good place to start. Remind them, or share with them maybe for the first time, that God is for them. Those few words can open huge doors for our witness to the good news.